RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS

Supreme Court hearing recessed until tomorrow

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian
federation will ask
the Supreme Court to confiscate the property of the organization,
in the event
of recognition of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist and of
a ban on the
activity of the organization on Russian territory.

"After the liquidation, the property of the
organization is subject to conversion into state property,"
Svetlana
Borisova, an attorney for the Ministry of Justice, said in the
Russian Supreme
Court on Thursday.

She said that the religious organization has
immovable
property that is subject to conversion to the use of the Russian
federation.

The plaintiff maintains that the lawsuit was
filed in order
to strengthen legality, prevent violations of the interests of
security, and
prevent extremist activity in the RF.

"The religious organization of Jehovah's
Witnesses has
indicators of extremist activity. They represent a threat to the
rights of
citizens, public order, and public safety," S. Borisova declared.

The lawyer for the ministry told the court
about the great
quantity of administrative violations of law, particularly such as
distribution
of extremist literature, which were committed by regional
representations of
Jehovah's Witnesses.

She said that forbidden printed materials of
Jehovah's
Witnesses proclaim exclusivity and also inferiority or superiority
on the basis
of the principle of adherence to a religion.

"Despite the inclusion in the list of extremist
literature, instances were established of the distribution of
forbidden printed
materials, particularly the periodical "Watchtower," the justice
ministry's attorney said.

In the capacity of threats to human safety, the
Ministry of
Justice lawyers name the prohibition of blood transfusion, which
the Jehovah's
Witnesses promote.

The Russian Ministry of Justice accused the
Jehovah's
Witnesses organization of denying its members blood transfusion,
an RIA Novosti
correspondent reports from the courtroom of the Supreme Court of
the RF.

On Thursday, the Russian Supreme Court
continued the trial
of the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice for finding the
Administrative Center
of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist and for banning this
organization.

"An expert analysis of informational
brochures of the
Jehovah's Witnesses was conducted and specialists came to the
conclusion that
the information contained in them represents a threat for
health,"
Svetlana Borisova, a lawyer for the ministry, said.

In addition she cited an instance where a
sick child was
denied a blood transfusion, since that contradicted the
religious views of his
parents, who were Jehovah's Witnesses.

The justice ministry is sure that the work of
the Jehovah's
Witnesses engenders a threat to the protection of rights and
interests of
society and public safety, the ministry's lawyer pointed out.

In the course of the trial it was reported
that courts in
Russia have ruled 95 brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses to be
extremist and have
prohibited their distribution in the RF.

A lawyer for the organization noted that
rejection of blood
transfusion is not extremism and that such actions are not in
the law on
combating extremist activity. At the same time, he noted, the
Ministry of
Justice has introduced only a single instance when doctors
suggested to parents
two alternative means of treatment, one of which included blood
transfusion.
But the parents wanted to treat the child with medications.

"Every citizen, whether a Jehovah's Witness
or not, has
the right to refuse blood transfusion and to choose treatment by
means of
taking tablets," the organization's lawyer noted. (tr. by PDS,
posted 6
April 2017)

TRIAL OF CASE OF LIQUIDATION OF JEHOVAH'S
WITNESSES IN
RUSSIA WILL CONTINUE ON 7 APRIL

Russian Supreme Court Judge Ivanenko, presiding
in the case
for liquidation of religious organizations of the Jehovah's
Witnesses in
Russia, ban of this confession, and confiscation of its property,
declared a
recess in the judicial session until 10 a.m. on 7 April, a
Portal-Credo.Ru
correspondent reports.

The court session of 6 April began with a
declaration of a
petition of the defendants (the Administrative Center of Jehovah's
Witnesses in
Russia) for a suspension of the hearing because yesterday private
appeals were
filed against the refusal of the court on 5 April to grant a
majority of 17
petitions submitted on that day. The court also turned down this
petition. At
the same time, the court added to the case more than 30 volumes of
materials
proving the non-participation of Jehovah's Witnesses in "extremist
activity."

A lawyer of the Ministry of Justice delivered
the arguments
of her ministry in favor of liquidation and a ban of the activity
of JW in
Russia. The judge called attention to a number of contradictions
in the
plaintiff's arguments, in particular, the justice ministry does
not have any
documents confirming that the JW prohibit providing medical care
to its
members.

Responding to questions of lawyers, the justice
ministry's
lawyer acknowledged that her ministry does not have information
about a
violation by the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in
Russia of a
ban on distribution of publications that were ruled to be
"extremist," and also she reported that the ministry knows about
the
dispatch of pertinent information by the center to local religious
JW
organizations. The lawyers also recalled that dozens of expert
analyses of JW
literature have been conducted by expert institutions subordinate
to the
Ministry of justice, while a substantial portion of these expert
analyses did
not discover indicators of "extremism" in the literature, which
subsequently was entered into the Federal List of Extremist
Materials of the
RF. Some of the literature was entered into that list on the basis
of the
presence in the publications of quotations from the Bible which
"inflamed
strife" toward nonbelievers, although at the present time there
operates a
prohibition in the RF on finding quotations from the Bible to be
"extremist." (tr. by PDS, posted 6 April 2017)

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